On April 22, we observe Earth Day, reminding us of the challenge we face to meet our continuing biblical obligation to replenish the earth.

But in the East, we blast Appalachian mountaintops off into the valleys, retrieving small seams of coal, while blocking miles of streams. In the Midwest, we plow up dry area grasslands to grow crops, taking three feet of irrigation water each year from underground aquifers like the Ogallala. Those aquifers are replenished by nature with perhaps an inch of water annually.

In the arid West, we dam rivers so that people and crops can live in deserts. The land becomes more saline, and the rivers no longer reach the sea.

Before the Europeans, Minnesota was a natural-resource treasure, with forests of virgin white pine and great deposits of iron ore. Our glacially deposited soils were nourished by the ample waters of our lakes, streams and aquifers. We need to protect our remaining soil and the waters that nourish it.

All over the Earth, abuse of nature continues. Many of God’s people are hungry, while the wealthy among us make a place at the food table for our cars and trucks by converting food to fuel. The vengeance for all of these acts will not be sudden, as in the great flood of biblical history.

Instead, rivers will gradually silt up the dams, overtop and remove them and resume their destined routes to the sea. Soils and ground water, impoverished and polluted from single-cropping and excessive fertilizers, will no longer nourish our billions. A warming atmosphere, saturated with carbon emissions, will wreak its own havoc.

There is still time — but not much — to take seriously our responsibility for the Earth.

Rolf Westgard, St. Paul

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